Moss Twomey

Maurice "Moss" Twomey (10 June 1897-October 1978) was Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1926 to 1936, succeeding Andy Cooney and preceding Sean MacBride.

Biography
Maurice Twomey was born in Clondulane, County Cork, Ireland in 1897, and he joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914. He served in the IRA during the Irish War of Independence, and he served as adjutant to anti-Treaty IRA commander Liam Lynch during the Irish Civil War. In 1925, he became a journalist for the Irish republican newspaper An Phoblacht, and he became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1926, supporting traditional militant republicanism instead of Peadar O'Donnell's purely socialist programme. However, Twomey continued the IRA's secret alliance with the Soviet Union, spying on the British and Americans for Red Army intelligence in exchange for assistance; Twomey saw the alliance as purely utilitarian and was not a communist himself (he was a socialist who put practicality before ideology). He allowed for IRA members to join left-wing groups, and, while he backed Fianna Fail against Cumann na nGaedheal, he refused to let the IRA attach itself to a political party. In the February 1932 general election, CG attempted to link Fianna Fail to the IRA and the IRA to communism, but Fianna Fail won that year's election; in 1936, however, Fianna Fail banned the IRA for its continued militancy and arrested Twomey, who was replaced as IRA Chief of Staff by Sean MacBride. Twomey was released in 1938, and he remained close to the IRA, being interned for two weeks in 1940. He died in 1978, just months after his wife's death.